Every child has the right to an inclusive and equitable quality education and opportunities for lifelong learning. Sadly, many children and adolescents, particularly the most vulnerable and those living in emergency and humanitarian contexts, are deprived of this fundamental right. Learning from the recent evaluation of UNICEF contribution to the reduction of out-of-school children and improving access to multiple and flexible pathways to learning, this note presents reflections and lessons learned on the multiple and flexible pathways potential to increase access to learning.
Multiple and Flexible Pathways (MFPs) are diverse set of programs aimed at providing learning opportunities for out-of-school children and adolescents. Despite their diversity, MFPs have a set of common characteristics:
They accommodate multi-age and multi-level learning: MFPs support children and adolescents who have never been to school and those who have dropped-out of school. Transition points between pre-primary, primary, secondary, and further skills development represent points of high prevalence.
They offer out-of-school children and adolescents flexible schedules: learning can be done during irregular hours, and they provide alternative opportunities to return to school.
They target children and adolescents that formal (or even non-formal) education systems cannot properly serve: such as under- and over-aged students, refugees, internally displaced children, children on the move, and socially excluded minorities living in remote areas.
They are needed and implemented in diverse locations: including community-based learning centers, makeshift set-ups, and refugee reception centers.
They create an important and safe learning space: for girls, children with disabilities, as well as children from linguistic minorities.
MFPs to learning for the most vulnerable children and adolescents
Learning from a recent UNICEF evaluation found that MFPs to learning expand opportunities to out-of-school children and adolescents in several ways, providing:
Second chance education: MFPs provided second-chance education for out-of-school children and adolescents to re-enter formal learning by helping them catch up. MFPs allowed many of the students who dropped out of school for various reasons (e.g., conflicts, early pregnancy, and financial burdens) and could not return to continue learning. These learning programs usually utilized compressed syllabi (i.e., accelerated learning) and allowed for flexible study hours (e.g., after work and over weekends). Some of these programs also provided qualifications for those who finished their studies. After catching up, out-of-school children and adolescents could re-enter the formal education systems and continue pursuing their educational goals.
Innovative and flexible solutions to reach remote areas: MFPs provided accessible learning opportunities to many children and adolescents living in remote areas where formal education systems were absent. In these areas, the nearest schools were often hours away on foot, and the routes were unsafe. These MFPs usually relied on a mix of independent work at home and regular lessons in learning centers. The lessons usually took place once or twice a week, and students from various academic levels came to learn collaboratively.
Skills development for employment: MFPs provided skills development opportunities to respond to specific labor market skill demands and facilitate the transition into the labor market of adolescents who left school. These opportunities are particularly pertinent to those out-of-school children and adolescents who finished primary education but not secondary education and are unemployed. Developing general abilities, such as teamwork, communication skills and other transferable skills, as well as vocational abilities (specific skills related to a job) have proven to influence future work opportunities.
Early childhood education opportunities: MFPs provided learning opportunities in places where pre-primary education was not universal. These programs offered access to learning opportunities for young children to develop foundational early skills for later academic, emotional, and social learning. Children in their early years are “learning sponges”, and these MFPs are critical to improving their school readiness and future learning.
Community engagement: MFPs created spaces that facilitated community engagement and mothers’ exposure to diverse positive parenting practices related to social interactions, communication, and healthy living. Examples of such programs included using trained community members as facilitators to guide diverse, playful, and creative activities.
Next steps for UNICEF: From improving access for learning to scaling up
MFPs have demonstrated many benefits for out-of-school children and adolescents, many of them the most vulnerable and ‘forgotten’ in our societies. However, additional efforts are required to scale up MFPs so that they can fulfil their transformative potential. The evaluation identified three critical practices to be essential to expanding access to learning through MFPs.
Implement advocacy and awareness campaigns to expand demand for MFP programs. Campaigns that emphasized the benefits of MFPs were particularly successful when the causes of leaving schools at both the national and local levels were carefully studied and then addressed in community-led campaigns. Also, the benefits of MFPs must be clearly delineated, whether returning out-of-school children and adolescents to schools or improving career prospects for young people and developing local economies. By responding to specific community contexts and needs, campaigns that utilize local channels and modes of communication, actors, and messages positively influence the demand for MFPs.
Produce cost-effectiveness analyses to monitor MFPs’ results, operational, and implementation costs for long-term planning and sustainable budgeting purposes. The costs of different implementation aspects, including teacher training, development of materials and quality control, remained opaque to governments, development partners, donors, and other stakeholders. Transparency in spending to fund and operationalize MFPs and alternative education are crucial to effectively plan and budget for sustainable results. Data to produce these analyses were scarce, resulting in further difficulties in estimating the cost-effective of MFPs.
Strengthen education monitoring, indicators, and data collection systems (EMIS) for quality evidence generation. Access to up-to-date, holistic, and coherent data is a prerequisite to identify factors behind school dropouts (or limited access to any education), to clearly define goals, and to communicate progress benchmarks for MFPs. Strengthening data collection systems at the local level and contextualizing their definitions and indicators are not only key to enhance the data collection process but also key to produce findings and recommendations that speak to local decisions makers for improving policy actions for out-of-school children and adolescents.
About the evaluation
This blogpost is the product of further reflections informed by the “Evaluation of UNICEF Contributions to the Reduction of Out-of-School Children and Improving Access to Multiple and Flexible Pathways,” which took place between September 2023 and May 2024. This evaluation, commissioned by UNICEF Evaluation Office, was conducted by a team of external evaluators (Ted Freeman, Claudia Galindo, Alvin Leung, Matteo Valenza, and Paola Vela) and managed by Tami Aritomi, Evaluation Specialist. Internal and external stakeholders were integral to its completion, and we wish to thank all those who contributed to this evaluation. The evaluation report and good practice notes can be found here.
The opinions expressed on the UNICEF Blog are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of UNICEF.
